# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_1975_S478
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

480 THE MISSION OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN THE WORLD

VI.
The Whole Church Is Christ's Mission

WHEREAS, Every Christian is commissioned a mis-
sionary through baptism, for through the selfsame
water and Word the Holy Spirit makes us both God’s
children and His witnesses to the world when He says:
“Go ye and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name
of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost,
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have
commanded you”; and

WHEREAS, All who are baptized into Christ are bap-
tized into His death and resurrection, into His mission,
and into His body; therefore be it

Resolved. That we affirm that the whole church is
Christ’s mission. Therefore we deplore anything that
seeks to divide what God has joined together. We de-
plore the clericalism that views a congregation primarily
as God’s instrument to sustain the ordained ministry,
thus smothering the diverse gifts of the Holy Spirit to
His people. Equally we deplore the laicism that chafes
under the shepherding by which a loving God seeks to
equip His children for His mission. We deplore the racism
which refuses to repent of its sin and denies the unity

of all Christians in Christ and His mission. We deplore
the desecration of Christianity by the multiplication of
sects as though the Gospel were a religion of human
design instead of God’s outreach after men in the giving
of Himself. The divisions in the institutional church are
as real as the unity in Christ’s body which joins all
Christians together. We deplore the wars and political
struggles that set Christians and other people in one
nation against those in another. We recognize that the
Christian lives in the tension between his own imperfect
understanding of God’s truth and his knowledge that in
spite of errors and divisions he is joined together in
Christ’s body with all who truly believe in its Head. The
Christian lives in the tension between Christ's lordship,
which is perfect, and his own discipleship, which is not.
The Christian rejoices over the existence of every fellow
believer in Christ his Savior, because thereby Christ is
preached and His mission is implemented, for the whole
church is Christ’s mission.

I Corinthians 1:10-31
Hebrews 11:1-39
James 3:1-18
Ephesians 2:1-22
Romans 14:1-23

Adopted at the 46th Convention of The Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod
June — 1965